The World's Great Sermons, Volume 01: Basil to Calvin
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 01: Basil to Calvin
Sermons
Look to Christ and you will find that all He says concerns faith. Ask
the apostle; he speaks of nothing else than of faith. If you have the
ground of all, if you have faith, you will always do what is good.
Without faith man always falls into sin. You must seek faith in order to
be good, or else your faith will become false. Christ commanded His
disciples to preach the Gospel to all the world, and your wise men call
a man a little world, a microcosm. So then preach to yourself, O man,
woman, and child. Three parts the world has in you also. Preach first of
all to your knowledge, and say to it: If you draw near this truth, you
will have much faith; wherefore do you hesitate to use it? To your will,
say: Thou seest that everything passes away; therefore love not the
world, love Christ. Thereupon turn to the second part of your world,
and say to it: Be thankful, my memory, for the mercies God has shown
thee, that thou thinkest not of the things of this world but of the
mercy of thy creation, and thy redemption through the blood of the Son
of God. Then go to the third part, to thy imagination, and proclaim to
it: Set nothing before my eyes but my death, bring nothing before me but
the Crucified, embrace Him, fly to Him. Then go through all the cities
of thy world and preach to them. First say to thine eyes: Look not on
vanity. To thy ears say: Listen not to the words of the lazy, but only
to the words of Jesus. To thy tongue say: Speak no more evil. For thy
tongue is as a great rock that rolls from the summit of a mountain, and
at first falls slowly, then ever faster and more furiously. It begins
with gentle murmuring, then it utters small sins, and then greater,
until it finally breaks forth in open blasphemy. To thy palate say: It
is necessary that we do a little penance. In all thy senses be clean,
and turn to the Lord, for He it is who will give you correction and
purity. To thy hands say: Do good and give alms; and let thy feet go in
the good way. Our reformation has begun in the Spirit of God, if you
take it to heart that each one has to preach to himself. Then will we in
the name of Jesus drive out the devils of temptation. Yes, call upon
Jesus as often as temptation approaches: call upon Him a hundred times
and believe firmly, and the temptation will depart. Then will we speak
with new tongues; we will speak with God. We shall drive away serpents;
the enticement of the senses are these serpents. If we drink anything
deadly it will not hurt us; if anger and lust arise in us, at the name
of Jesus they will have to give way. We shall lay our hands upon the
sick and heal them; with good deeds shall we strengthen the weak soul.
If thou feelest thy weakness, flee to God, and He will strengthen;
therefore He is thy only refuge. He is thy Savior and thy Lord, who went
into the heavens to prepare a place for thee, and to wait thee there.
What do you intend to do? Go and follow Jesus, who is praised from
everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
LUTHER
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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